Things that Add up to Your Wedding Expense

Deciding to get married is one thing. But to pull it off and to sustain the commitment is another story. You may get surprised to find that many couples break up months or days leading up to the wedding due to disagreements during the event’s preparations. Simple dilemmas like who to invite, what to wear, or what theme the event should be in are some of the issues that many couples fight about. It is sad that a happy relationship will only lead to a breakup because of these little issues.

Another issue that always creeps up is the wedding budget. While one wants to splurge, the other wants to save. And while one wants to give a lot of budget for food, another wants to put it on drinks. Money, unfortunately, makes or breaks a relationship, and preparing for a wedding is no exception. You may think that preparing for the wedding fool-proofs your relationship, but it is not always the case. Movies and TV sitcoms are all wrong about the fantasy that comes with wedding preparations.

For sure, you don’t want to fight with your partner just because of money issues, so here are some of the things that might add up to your wedding expense, so you are well-guided with your preparations. Take note of these, so you don’t end up going over your budget and fighting it over with your partner:

1. Having intricate decorations

Renting a venue is already a significant expense in itself, but if you add in a lot of decorations, you are setting yourself up for trouble. Putting flowers around the venue may look amazing, but it can rake in a lot of your event’s budget because, well, decorative flowers are expensive. And if you add a few more Pinterest-inspired decors here and there, the bill might come up to hundreds of dollars that you are unprepared for.

Go easy on the decorations if you are short on budget. In fact, having excellent food is deemed more important by guests instead of having Instagram-worthy decorations. What are venue decorations if your food quality is poor, and customer service is appalling as well? Focus on what’s important, and if you want to save up, check for venues that already have great decorations, to begin with. Even if they cost more, they might end up costing less since you don’t have to add anything else for decorations.

You can even have your family and friends help you out with putting on these decors. You can have it as a weekend activity and as a way to bond with each other. Time is a valuable gift to give because there is no way for you to replace it.

2. Not hiring a coordinator and wanting to do everything on your own

It may sound more budget-friendly not to hire a coordinator and to want to do all preparations on your own, but as you go along with the preparations, you will realize how worthy it would have been to hire one.

Let’s put it this way: if you want to be your personal coordinator, you would have to deal with every single detail of your wedding. From the venue, ceremony, reception, booking schedules, catering, band, program, giveaways, guest list, and the overall operations of the event. And if you have a full-time job or you already have a family, it will take at least 80% of your time every day doing the coordinating yourself. Remember, time is money, and so if you think of all the energy and time you’ve put into preparing for the wedding, it seems like you’ve already lost thousands of dollars just doing all the coordination yourself.

What’s more, you might even have fights with your partner along the way because of all the stress from the preparations. And there is more of a chance that you will make mistakes because you are being the jack of all trades without having the proper training for it (unless you are a wedding coordinator yourself!). You might even miss getting a live band from http://aroundtownent.com/new-jersey-wedding-bands/ needed at the reception.

Picking the Right Coordinator

To save you time, energy, and sanity, hire a coordinator who is trained well to do this job for you. But there are now lots of coordinators selling their services offline and online, so it is the challenge now for you to pick one that will best fit your needs and budget. What’s best practice is for you to hire someone whose services you’ve already tried or someone whom you’ve seen the work firsthand through another person’s event.

And most importantly, the service should fit your budget. Make sure that you are clear with what’s included and not included in the fee. You don’t want to be signing a contract and then realizing there’s a lot of add-ons to the professional charge.

These are two of the things that can surprisingly add up to your wedding expense. If you are working within a limited budget, keep watch of these add-ons and think of what you can do to make things work for you. For sure, quality should always trump quantity, so plan well and make sure you are ready for all the challenges that will lie ahead with your wedding preparations.